Ale’s Well That Ends Well For Top Beers

THIRTY-FIVE drinks in seven categories – but there could be only one supreme champion of the Peterborough Beer Festival, and that accolade was taken by Moonlight. The bitter, brewed by Grafters of Gainsborough, came out on top after 25 eager drinkers spent three hours yesterday tasting a range of tipples to decide which was the festival’s finest. It was a special victory for the smooth tasting ale, which last year won the “best beer from a new brewery” category.

Each of the drinks – from best bitters, to stouts and porters – was judged purely on its taste, before a winner from each category was chosen. The winners were then brought back to the tables for one final tasting, where the overall champion was announced.

It is a tough job but – unsurprisingly – hospitality manager for the 32nd annual Peterborough Beer Festival, Noel Ryland, was not short of volunteers to complete the task.

He said: “The judging of the supreme champion beer is a very important part of the festival, but it’s also fun, too. It’s not a technical tasting, it’s just if the judge likes it or not.

“We’ve had a good cross-section of judges, including ladies who don’t normally drink beer.”

Not all the beers were easy drinking, as 24-year-old judge Johnnie Anderson from Peterborough’s CAMRA Cricket Club explained.

“We’ve been doing this now for a couple of years. It’s good fun, but not too technical, which helps because you just enjoy the beer. The first drink was rubbish, but there has been one very nice one, so that’s been my pick for the top so far.”

For Alix Botton (19), who is the Peterborough CAMRA’s young people contact, the judging was a first time experience as she bids to recruit a younger generation of ale drinkers.

She said: “We want to get as many young people as possible to join the organisation to get a big diversity of people. My first ‘taste’ has been pretty good, some have been bad, but some not so bad.”

The 35 finalists were chosen by the traders during their session on Tuesday afternoon at the opening of the festival.

A whopping 1,695 traders headed to The Embankment – up by more than 200 people from last year – followed by 4,729 punters later in the day, a record for the festival’s first night.